ISI Bill tabled in Lok Sabha amid opposition protest, campus stages demonstration
Times of India | 4 August 2026
Kolkata: Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 was tabled in Lok Sabha on Monday by the minister of statistics and programme implementation Rao Inderjit Singh to provide for a comprehensive statutory framework to the 95-year-old institute. The bill, which Singh claimed would pave the way for the institute to become a globally recognised centre for statistical sciences and allied fields, was tabled amid sloganeering by opposition members in the Parliament.
Around the same time, miles from the national capital, the ISI’s BT Road campus was up in protest as students and faculty members staged a demonstration in front of the R A Fisher Building, expressing concern over the bill being introduced without any “structured consultation” with the faculty, students and staff. They alleged that in its present shape, the bill would lead to a bureaucratic takeover of the institute and could jeopardise the policy of providing education without tuition fees and threaten sustainability of student stipends.
Established in 1931, ISI has played a pioneering role in the fields like statistics, mathematics and computer sciences. The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 sought to repeal the Indian Statistical Institute Act, 1959 and replace it with an act, in alignment with the legal framework with the evolving needs of India’s growing and data-driven economy.
On Monday, after Singh tabled the bill in the Lok Sabha, seven MPS—Congress’s Manish Tiwari, G K Padvi and Vishal Patil, Trinamool’s Pratima Mandal and Saugata Roy and DMK’s D M Kathir and T Sumathy—filed notice to oppose. It was later re-tabled following a vote.
The bill, which has drawn sharp criticism from many academicians, faculty members and students since the draft was posted by the MoSPI, is silent on the location of ISI headquarters. After a controversy had arisen over apprehensions of the headquarters being shifted from Kolkata, the second draft, which was circulated in Nov 2025, acknowledged Kolkata as the headquarters. The bill, which was circulated among MPs, did not refer to any headquarters.
On Monday, four Bhatnagar awardee scientists—Prabal Chaudhuri, Debasish Goswami, Palash Sarkar of the ISI and Rajat S Hazra of Leiden University—wrote to Singh, raising concern over “taking away academic autonomy and intellectual freedom of pursuing world-class research”. Raja Ram Singh, member of the Lok Sabha from Karakat, Bihar, also wrote to Singh, seeking the bill to be referred to the Parliamentary Committee for detailed review and stakeholder consultation. He said a passage of the bill would not only erode “India Renaissance legacy” but might also lead to legal and administrative friction.
According to MoSPI sources, ISI director Amartya Kumar Dutta has also written to Singh, seeking the ministry to hold discussions with the stakeholders.
Meanwhile, some ISI faculty members on Monday spoke to Congress MP Manish Tiwari over the bill. They are likely to meet Congress’s Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday.